


The Game

by Elemental_sorceress1



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-13 22:25:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1242799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elemental_sorceress1/pseuds/Elemental_sorceress1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written as a birthday gift for my friend eyeless_soul. </p>
<p>When a fan creates a game, Sherlock must race against time to save the one he cares for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eyeless_soul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyeless_soul/gifts).



John paced around the room, wringing his hands in his sweater, while Lastrade and his team, joined by Mycroft did there best to try to find Sherlock, who had decided it was a good idea to run off to god knows where, without telling anybody, not even John, when there was a psychotic fan out there playing games with him. They already proved they were willing to kill to get Sherlock's attention, and John knew there was two ways this could end. One, they found them and put a stop to them and there twisted little game, two, Sherlock died, murdered in some terrible way John didn't even want to think of because it would make him sick.

"Are we really sure we want to find the freak? How do we know it isn't Sherlock behind all of this?" Sally Donovan asked, raising her eyes to look at the other members of the room.

"Donovan!" Lastrade reprimanded.

"It is quite alright detective, I am well aware how cold my brother can come off" Mycroft assured him.

"No it's not alright! All she does is put Sherlock down and call him 'Freak' because she doesn't know him and doesn't even try to. Everytime somebody dies, she immediately assumes Sherlock did it, and she's never been right, not once! You have all judged him, even you Mycroft, your supposed to love him no matter what, and you sold him out. Just stop it, all of you, just for once in your sorry pitiful lives care for him, and whether he dies or not!" John snapped, voice raised all through his rant, and face red at the end, fists shacking.

"Your right John, we've all been cruel to him in the past, and it's time we cared about him" Lastrade agreed. Sally lowered her eyes back to the the table and said nothing, Anderson looked ready to add his thoughts but a pointed look from Lastrade stopped him. And Mycroft looked guilty, just for a second before his face was back in it's usual mask.

XXX

Sherlock ran through the damp streets, studying the shadows before moving on. He had to find that clue, John's life depended on finding all the clues in this little scavenger hunt the killer had set up. Sherlock had seen the pictures that was sent in the mail, a warning that if he failed this task, John would end up like the man in those pictures, bloody, beaten, tortured, dead, cold, lifeless, and that thought nearly made even him ill, he couldn't allow that to happen, not to John, his John.

Sherlock skidded to a stop, when he finally found the clue, painted on the concrete wall of the alley in white spray paint. Chinese numbers, guiding him to the next clue, a street, look for the corresponding numbers for the next clue. Sherlock ran, calling a taxi to a stop once he reached the street, climbing into the back, hoping it he wouldn't run out of time.

XXX

John stared at the piece of paper, heart pounding in his chest, blood running cold. The sick bastard was taunting them, mocking them with threats, threats that could all come true if they didn't find Sherlock before it was to late. John couldn't lose Sherlock, not again, not for real. He wasn't strong enough to survive Sherlock dying, not a second time.

John swallowed, and took a deep breath, before turning around to face the others. Lastrade looked worried, and Mycroft actually looked afraid, and all for Sherlock. Finally they were beginning to care for him, to worry for his live. He just hoped Sherlock lived to know they were worried for him.

XXX

Every second the clock counted down, they were running out of time, time to save Sherlock, time to put an end to all of this. And they still had no idea where Sherlock was, or where he'd gone, or who was behind all of this. They needed Sherlock, but he was the one they were searching for in the first place.

"When my brother does not wish to be found, it can be incredibly difficult to do so" Mycroft said, which really is no help at all.

"I know I've said this, and got yelled at, but are we sure he's not a part of it?" Sally asked.

"They're using parts of our cases, Sherlock isn't dumb enough to do that, he would know that he'd be the first one you'd suspect" John snapped.

"And he'd know you'd say it was to obvious, and it'd throw us off, so he would do it" Sally argued.

"Why are you even here? Your not helping, all your doing is accusing him, if you don't want to help than leave!" John told her, glaring at the woman. Donovan's mouth dropped open, and she looked at Lastrade only to have the man shake his head at her.

"He's got a point Sally, we're all trying to help, and you've accused him at every turn. Maybe you should leave" Lastrade told her.

"Fine" she huffed, leaving the room.

"You wanna follow her?" John asked Anderson, who shook his head.

"Good" John nodded, looking back at the papers spread out on the table in front of them.

XXX

He failed, time had run out and he had failed, failed, how had he failed? He was better than that, he had to be better than that, but it was too late, time had run out. Sherlock slid down the wall, staring up at the cloudy grey sky. He was too late, and he had failed. Failed John, the one person he would give his life for, the one person he had given his life for, and he failed him. Sherlock gripped his hair in his hands, and tried to force back the tears that were threatening to escape, he had failed.

XXX

John, scrubbed a hand over his face, breathing in the crisp air outside of Scotland Yard, it was going to rain soon, but that didn't matter, it rained all the time. They had failed, Sherlock was still missing, nobody knew where he was, Sherlock's life was still at stake.

John didn't see the person sneak up on him, and he didn't have time to scream, before the wooden bat connected with his skull. He didn't see the face of the woman standing over him before he lost consciousness.

XXX

When John regained conciseness, he was tied to a chair, his head pounding, and he could feel the itchiness on the back of his neck that let him know he had a bleeding head wound, concussion, probably a bad one. He looked around the room, cataloging his surroundings. Light hanging from the ceiling, tray of tools sat beside the chair, blood on the floor, signs somebody had washed some of it off with water, most of it remained though. Now he just had to find a way to free himself and escape, there had to be a door somewhere beyond the weak light touched.

"Oh, good, your awake" a female voice said, a figure appearing out of the shadows.

"You know, I thought somebody who was in the war would wake up sooner, but oh well, that doesn't matter. We still have all the time in the world to have some fun" she smiled. She was tall, a little chubby, but still on the thin side, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a pair of old tattered stained jeans, and short sleeved stained blue shit, and old sneakers.

"I really was hoping he'd win my little game, I didn't want to hurt you, that would kill him, but he lost, and now I have to, it's not my choice, but I have no say in the matter, those were the rules" She told him.

"You don't have to do anything, this is your choice" John tried, if he could stop her, even distract her, he could work on getting away.

"No it's not!" she snapped, hand landing on his cheek with a loud smack. "Those were the rules, games have rules" She said.

"Your right, those were the rules" John agreed.

"Stop talking" she said firmly, and John nodded, clenching his lips shut.

"Now it's time for our fun to begin" she smiled, grabbing one of the knives off the tray. After cutting and tearing at the sleeve of his sweater and the shirt underneath, she made a series of long shallow cuts to his arm.

XXX

Sherlock looked at the note again, it taunted him for being too late, before apologizing for what they said they had to do. John may die tonight, but Sherlock wouldn't give up without a fight, John needed him and he'd be dammed if he was just going to give up without even trying to find him. All he needed was to study the clues, and figure this out. Sherlock stood and turned around, catching a taxi and headed towards Scotland yard. 

XXX

John didn't know how much time had passed, all he knew was that it felt like it had been hours. The woman had made several more cuts to his arms and chest, with different blades, different lengths and depth.

When she made another cut to his chest, he screamed once again.

"This is boring, all you do is scream, the others cried and begged for their lives. Your ruining all the fun" She said. "Oh, I know lets move on" she smiled and walked off to get something else to use on him.

XXX

When Sherlock arrived at the yard, Lastrade, Anderson, Donovan, and Mycroft were busy trying to find John, with no luck. And once they noticed him, Lastrade started asking questions one after another, not allowing Sherlock to get a word in edge wise.

"Shut up. You are wasting time" Sherlock told him, walking over to the table that had paper strewn over top it.

"Of course when you decide to show up, John has disappeared" Donovan said, sitting down in a chair.

"We need to find him" Sherlock said.

"We will, it'll just take a bit of time" Lastrade said.

"Time we do not have, every moment we waste, John's life is in danger" Sherlock said.

"What do you mean? You really think they'd kill him so soon?" Lastrade asked, and Sherlock threw the envelope of pictures, threats, and clues on the table in front of Lastrade.

"Where did you get these?" Lasrade asked, looking through the stake of photos.

"They were sent to me. If I didn't follow clues and solve them before time ran out John would suffer the same way as the man in those pictures. I failed once, I will not fail again" Sherlock told him.

XXX

John breathed deeply, trying to ignore the pain, and the tears that were trying to escape. He really hoped they would find him soon, he doubted this would end with him being allowed to walk free, and he really didn't want to die.

John looked up when the woman returned, when she stepped into the light John noticed she was carrying a gun in her hand. John fought against his bounds, struggling to try and get his hands free.

XXX

Sherlock stared out the windshield of Lasrade's car, hoping they got there in time to save John. He couldn't fail John again, he had failed him once before, and he would not do it again. He had to save John, he had to. John needed him, and he would do everything in his power to be there for him.

XXX

John's eyes widened as the woman raised the gun, this was it, the end of the line, his live was over, he was going to die here. John heard the bang of the gun, felt the pain of the bullet entering his chest before his chair went backwards, and his eyes closed, feeling the blood pump out of his body for a few seconds before there was nothing else.

XXX

At the sound of a gunshot, Sherlock's blood ran cold, and he rushed inside after Lasrade, gun held firmly in his hands, and his heart pounding in his ears.

When they entered, the building they found a woman standing over John's prone body on the floor, holding a gun in her hand. She looked up at the sound of them entering and smiled at Sherlock.

"You found me. I knew you would, even when you failed my little game, I knew you would find me" she said.

"Drop the weapon and step away" Lastrade ordered, gun trained on the woman.

"This is between me and Sherlock" the woman glared.

"Do what he says" Sherlock told her.

"Sherlock, you pointing a gun at me is no way to begin our life together" she tsked.

"We have no life together" Sherlock told her.

"Yes, we do! We're going to get married" she snapped.

"Look lady, there is no life with you and Sherlock, now drop the weapon and move away slowly" Lastrade said.

"Sherlock, are you really going to let him talk to me like that?" she asked.

"Drop your gun and move" Sherlock told her, the woman glared at him and pointed her own gun at him.

"I didn't want to hurt you Sherlock, but you leave me no choice" She said, before she could fire, Lastrade shot her, and she crumpled to the ground. Sherlock rushed to John's side, quickly checking for a pulse.

"He's alive, but he's going to need medical attention and soon" Sherlock said rushing to untie John without hurting him to much.

XXX

When John opened his eyes again, there was a bright light above him, and a beeping in his ear, he was in a hospital than, good, he was going to be alright.

"Your awake" Sherlock's voice said from beside him and John turned his head to face him.

"Sherlock" John croaked, before coughing, his throat was sure, breathing tube than.

"Your going to be alright, if we had been just a few minutes later you would have died" Sherlock told him, gently taking ahold of John's hand.

"I'm okay" John said softly, fighting to keep his eyes open.

"Sleep John, I will be her when you wake up" Sherlock promised, and John's eyes closed. Everything was okay, John was going to be just fine and Sherlock was grateful for that.

**Author's Note:**

> Is Psychological torture a tag? I don't even know. I can't write torture to save my life, so this doesn't have it, but John was physically tortured. All of the spell check was done by me online, I apologize for any and all mistakes, those are mine. I hope you enjoy it.


End file.
